THE TROPICAL AGftlCULTtJRIST. [^une 1, 1903. 
earry their swn electric motor, or are hanled as 
trailers by a. single motor, collecting its current from 
a fixed wire or pair of wires as it travels along. The 
second system, known as the " Bleichert " Bystem has 
at present the greatest vogue, and there are hundreds 
of miles in working order in various parts of the world 
to-day, but I am inclined to think that where power is 
cheap, the third system of electric traction will be 
the system of the near future. 
The motive power for this and all the other factory 
machinery will be generated on one or two of the rivers 
or large streams which, more often than not, are 
running to waste near every tea district, for want of 
sufiBcient profitable work to justify the expenditure of 
the necessary capital to exploit them. 
Having got our wire rope tramway laid to the centre 
of each sub-garden, or a convenient point therein, the 
signal will be given from the factory as convenient 
to call in the labour ; the leaf being weighed will 
be emptied into a travelling belt, which will convey 
it into a small chamber, where it will be chilled to 
just a low enough temperature to prevent any possi- 
bility of heating within the next twenty minutes or 
80. In the same chamber, it will be fed into tipping 
cages, divided horizontally into compartments not 
deeper than six iuchts each, so that when the trolley 
is turned upright, the leaf at the bottom cannot be 
crushed by that above. All the trolleys being thus 
filled with cool leaf the train will be pushed out into 
the open way, and set going at a high speed direct 
to the factory. Here it will be received, not as often 
now, on a muddy floor, but into the topmost loft 
direct, and the carriages detached from their motor, 
will be run off here and there by the attendant boys 
and tipped down the various shutes in obedience to 
the requirements and orders of the European Superin- 
tendent in charge of the automatic leaf spreaders. 
Having thus got our leaf into the centre of the 
web, let us before going into farther details of its 
treatment, consider the general construction of the 
factory itself. 
The factory of the future will of necessity be a very 
different concern to the present day two or three 
storey affair, with, so often as not, wide spreading 
closed verandahs, especially designed to catch the 
Bunshiue on their iron roofs, and heat up the very 
rooms which it is most desirable to keep cool ; 
small withering lofts which render extra outside 
withering houses absolutely necessary, and from which 
latter in wet and cold weather, the leaf has to be 
gathered up, doubly handled, and brought into the 
factory loft under the influence of the fans to get 
it withered at all. 
The new factory will make allowance for the 
maximum of leaf within its own compass, or at any 
rate arrange for storing it harmlessly till there is 
room for it on the withering machines ; it will 
scarcely be less tiian sixty to sixty-five feet high 
to the eaves, allowing in each bay for 15 ft, for the 
ground floor, and two withering lofts or rooms of 
at least twenty feet high each, and a receiving loft, 
though this latter may easily be accommodated in 
the depth of the roof. 
The factory in toto will consist of tour, five or more 
bays, converging radially into a central house, in which 
will be situated the fans and air shaft in use for the 
whole of the withering apparatus, and for general 
punkah work and ventilation. The building itself, 
from floor to ridge, will be constructed of iron and 
steel throughout, the withering loft, floors and walls 
being further lined wilh seme non-conducting and 
combustible material, such as papier mache, manu- 
factured by the Company in India from local timber, 
and intermixed with grain mica recovered from the 
local river beds, or with crude asbestos fibre : the 
whole being coated with some one of the so-oalled 
''Asbestos paintB, even now coming to the front as 
fire-protectora. 
the several bays will probably not exceed sixty to 
sixty five feet in width, and will eack contain, as 
Siforeaaid, two withoving roomi* twenty f«et iu height 
running their entire length, and fitted with the 
necessary withering apparatus, hereafter to be des- 
cribed with Us feeding, discharging and ventilating 
gear complete. 
The lower floors will in all cases be devoted to 
the manufacture of tea, and the various accessories 
9{ 'he trade, store rooms and other heavy work. 
The rolling and drying departments would probably 
occupy a whole floor each, fermenting another, and 
box making in all its branches a fourth. Space 
would also be found in the building for a rep-iir 
shop fitted with all the necessary machine tools, and 
also wood working machinery, and papsr-moulders 
and presses to reduce the cost of outside building 
operations in those parts where at present expensive 
Chinamen are employed. 
Such being the general outlines of the building, 
we will turn our attention in another chapter to a 
tenative forecast of the machinery likely to be em- 
ployed therein.— Jndian Planters' Gazette. 
(To be continued.) 
^ 
PEPPER VINE DISEASE IN THE 
WYNAAD. 
Me, Bakbeh's Eeport. 
The following is from interim Report to the 
Wynaad Planters' Association of Mr, C. A. Barber, 
the Government Botanist, on his investigations into 
the pepper vine disease in the Wynaad : — 
" 1 visited the following places : — Neddikarna, 
Moopenaad ^briefly), Nedimballi and Poothacoolie, 
Cotternaad (btiefly), Anda Tode, Moovatie. The bulk 
of my work was done at Anda Tode and Nedimballi, 
where vines were carefully dissected out for a couple of 
days in each place. Since leaving Moovatie, I had 
the opportunity of visiting about a dozen gardens 
on my way to Calient so as to get a glimpse of th» 
mode of cultivation in the plains. 
I have come to the conclusion that whatever the 
trouble be, it is situated in the mound of earth sur- 
rounding the root stock. The two factors which seem 
to point in this direction are — (I) that the canker, 
which sets in all diseased plants is situated in the 
mound of earth surrounding the root stock, and (2) 
that in diseased plants there is an almost total 
absence of the tine net work of surface-feeding roots 
which I have always observed in healthy plants. 
My statement that the cmker seeing to originate at 
the collar is based upon the fact that, however, com- 
pletely that part of the plant may have gone, it is 
possible within a reasonable period after death to trace 
the cankerous spots both upwards and downards into 
what appears to be perfectly healthy tissHes. I take 
it also from my examination that there are two systems 
of roots in the pepper vine— one deep rooting and one 
superficial. The first eight plants which I dug up 
were diseased, and in these there were hardly any 
surface roots. I was thus led to the false (as I 
believe) idea that the pepper vine is a deeper feeder 
than generally supposed. By the kindness of Mr. 
Winterbotham, 1 was able, however, to dig up a fine 
healthy plant. Then I at once saw that the great mass 
of roots was superficial and indeed largely confined to 
the heap of earth which seems to be always piled up 
around ths base of the standard. If these two points 
are held in view, it will be seen that it is of the 
utmost importance to examine into the question as 
to whether the current heaping up of earth round the 
standard is a proper operation. I may say at onoe 
that I saw nothing in the low-country cultivation 
which would justifiy it. 
Briefly, I do not think it is done iu an altogether 
reasonable manner. Let the question be asked of 
practical planters, '' Given that the pepper vine is a 
surface feeder and that the bulk of its feeding roots 
are developed ne.ir the main root stock, ought not the 
mound of earth to be mide suitable to delicate 
feeding rootlets I have frequently found this moaad 
of earth so hard that it wtia with diffi'^altj' {^netrated 
